POCONO SUMMIT — Pleasant Valley started out strong and then hung on for dear life.

Devon Howard made two free throws with 36 seconds left after the third-seeded Bears watched a 17-point lead disappear before pulling out a 47-45 victory over No. 2 Stroudsburg in the semifinals of the Mountain Valley Conference boys basketball playoffs at Pocono Mountain West on Wednesday.

The Bears (13-10) will meet two-time defending MVC champion Pocono West, a 56-44 winner over fourth-seeded East Stroudsburg South, in the conference championship game at 8 p.m. at Pocono Mountain East on Friday.

Pleasant Valley looked like a sure bet to be there after controlling the game's first 20 minutes.

The Bears jumped out to a 15-4 lead after one, thanks to tough defense that held Stroudsburg (12-11) to 2-for-10 from the floor while forcing eight turnovers.

Pleasant Valley expanded the lead to 29-15 by the half and after Dan Hrbek's 3-pointer led by 17 with 5:26 to go in the third. That didn't totally ease Pleasant Valley Ken Piontkowski's mind though.

"I was happy with the lead, but against a team like Stroudsburg that shoot the ball really well I know a 14-point lead in high school basketball (isn't enough)," Piontkowski said. "I thought it could have been 18 or 20 and then I could have felt a little better, but we needed every single one of those points."

The Bears sure did.

Stroudsburg cut the deficit to eight by the end of the third quarter and with 1:37 left in the fourth, Jacob Battle hit a 3 to make it 45-40. Helping the Mounties' case was PV's woes from the free throw line, where the Bears missed 11 straight at one point.

"I think it just kind of snowballed eventually," Piontkowski said. "We missed a couple and maybe we got a little frustrated."

Stroudsburg finally came all the way back when Battle drained a 3 followed by a runner in the lane to tie it at 45-45 with 53 seconds to go.

On PV's next possession, Howard drove to the basket, was fouled on the way and stepped up to the line with a chance to reverse his team's fortunes at the stripe. He did just that, swishing both to give the Bears a two-point edge.

"We had Stroudsburg in the beginning, but they're a good team and good teams come back," said Howard, who finished with a team-high 12 points. "But it's natural, I've hit free throws before in big games. We hit some and missed some (but hit the ones that mattered)."

Howard missed two that could have iced the game, and Battle, who led all scorers with 26 points, had a good look at a 3, but it came up short. The junior got his own rebound, but his jumper from the baseline was off and PV could exhale.

"I figured that one was going in," Piontkowski said. "He had a pretty good look and you could kind of see it coming. Luckily, I heard the buzzer sound and I was just drained."

In the second game, ES South gave Pocono West another battle before the Panthers pulled away late.

The Cavs (11-12), who lost both regular-season meetings with the Panthers by three, built a 13-6 lead early on. West rallied over the final 2:40 to tie the score at 15-15 through eight minutes.

The second quarter was a bit different as West (19-4) tightened down on a defense to take a 27-21 lead into the half.

"I thought in the first quarter we didn't play very well defensively," PM West coach Brad Pensyl said. "We were solid after that."

The Cavs pulled even twice in the third quarter, but West scored the final seven points to lead by nine with eight minutes to play.

O'Neil Holder, who led South with 16 points, kept the Cavs in with a pair of 3s, but the Panthers scored 10 straight over 2:13 to pull away. Eric Vick scored nine of his game-high 22 in the fourth, while Joe Wiggins added 17 for West.

"(South) sits in that zone, but we were able to make them come out and play man-to-man (defense) and once we did that I felt pretty good," Pensyl said. "With our guards and the way they can penetrate and the way we shoot foul shots, although we didn't shoot them particularly well, we made them when we had to."